University College

The University of Maryland's University College has established a Desert Storm Spouse Scholarship Program to enable overseas spouses of Americans serving in the Persian Gulf to further their education.All spouses who have remained at U.S. installations in Europe, Asia and the Pacific while their spouses serve in the gulf qualify.To ensure that scholarships can continue throughout the deployment of troops in the gulf, the university also is seeking voluntary donations from individuals and corporations to support this program.

Loyola men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos minced no words when leading scorer Dylon Cormier was shut out in the first half Tuesday against Boston University. "I said 'Dylon, they're wearing your jersey [in the stands] and you have no points,'" Patsos said. "He said 'I got it.'" Did he ever. Cormier scored all 16 of his points in the last 11 minutes as the Greyhounds rallied past Boston University, 70-63, before an announced 984 at Reitz Arena in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

The University of Maryland University College is closing its campus in Germany, saying it has failed to live up to expectations and is a financial drain at a time of state budget constraints. University College, the system's distance education branch, created the campus in southwestern Germany in 1992 - forming the college's only overseas branch, other than classes at U.S. military posts. The campus was expected to have an enrollment of 800, but has only 260 students, with a full-time faculty of 15. Its $5 million budget is running a $300,000 deficit.

Baltimore County police are making another plea for help in finding the killer of Joann "Jody" LeCornu, a 23-year-old Towson University student who was shot in the back near her car in a shopping center on York Road in 1996. Metro Crime Stoppers has upped an reward to more than $30,000 in the 15-year-old case. The student was killed about 3:40 a.m. March 2, 1996 in the back of the Drumcastle Shopping Center, and managed to drive across the street to what was then York Road Plaza, where she died.

Robert E. Myers, an aide to Maryland's university system chancellor, has been named acting president of the University of Maryland University College, replacing its ailing chief executive.Myers, 47, takes over from T. Benjamin Massey, who after 20 years as president took a health-related leave recently and plans to retire in October. Myers is chief of staff for economic development and strategic initiatives to Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg. Langenberg said Myers will serve until a permanent successor is found.

The University of Maryland's University College, seeing its worldwide education programs threatened by a dramatic reduction of U.S. troops abroad, has begun marketing itself to foreign students on their own turf.The continuing education arm of the state's public university system has quietly sent out notices to high schools here and abroad announcing the opening in September of a four-year college in a small town in Germany. A campus in Thailand could be next.Because of a near stranglehold on military education contracts abroad, University College is the largest purveyor of American higher education outside the United States.

I proudly teach government and politics at University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and often discuss the notorious 1898 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case with my students. Plessy cemented the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow foundation by endorsing the racist doctrine of "separate but equal." In some ways, UMUC is similar to the East Louisiana Railroad car that Homer Plessy boarded on June 7, 1892. Just as railroads served to propel the U.S. toward progress in the 19th century, UMUC plays a key role in creating a future of global opportunities for thousands of adult students in Maryland and throughout the world, offering bachelor's and master's programs, a doctoral program and a multitude of certificate programs and numerous online offerings.

State Higher Education Secretary Shaila Aery is proposing to reduce the size of the University of Maryland System by eliminating University College and merging its continuing education program into the curriculum of UM College Park.Aery's move to reduce the system from 11 campuses to 10 is part of a plan for statewide and regional policy initiatives in higher education through 1995 that was to be considered today by a committee of the Maryland Higher Education Commission.She is also proposing moving the Lida Lee Tall Learning Resources Center from Towson State University to Morgan State University, which would be chiefly responsible for developing urban education programs.

Dr. Ray R. Ehrensberger, who carried the University of Maryland to airmen and ensigns and sergeants from Greenland to Vietnam, died Friday at his home in College Park of an apparent heart attack. He was 92.Dr. Ehrensberger was a founder of Maryland's University College (UMUC) -- later called the "University of the World" -- at a time when some fellow professors looked down on the idea of teaching nontraditional, part-time students. But he won support for offering college courses to military personnel from the university's president and board of regents.

RAY EHRENSBERGER, who died recently at 92, was a radical visionary in adult education. At a time after World War II when many of America's institutions of higher learning still viewed part-time studies -- particularly in night classes at off-campus locations -- with suspicion and horror, he saw the future potential.Known as "Big Daddy," he was one of the founders of what today is the University College of the University of Maryland. Over the past 50 years, it has offered courses at American military bases and other installations from the Arctic to Vietnam.

University of Maryland University College was academically sound on the day President Susan Aldridge resigned, according to the chancellor of the state university system. That assurance, conveyed by Chancellor William E. Kirwan in an interview last week, is the closest Maryland higher-education officials have come to answering questions about the sudden departure last month by the leader of the nation's largest online-focused public university. Aldridge's decision to step down has drawn notice across the national higher-education community because neither she nor the university system has offered an explanation.

Most Maryland colleges and universities remained in similar spots in annual rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report, but the magazine highlighted individual programs at the University of Maryland College Park and again placed the University of Maryland, Baltimore County at the top of its up-and-coming list. College Park finished No. 56 in the overall ranking of national universities, down three spots from 2009. But U.S. News placed the state's flagship university 20th on its up-and-coming list, praised its programs for first-year students and its themed learning communities, and ranked its undergraduate business program No. 19 in the country.

Joseph Sheppard has painted a president, sculpted a pope, written books on art and shown his work across the U.S. and Europe. But a new art gallery that opens Tuesday marks perhaps the greatest achievement of all for the Maryland-born artist: It will be the first time that a permanent gallery has opened in the state to house the works of a single living artist. "I think it's my best work," the 79-year-old Sheppard says. "If this happens at all, the artist is usually dead. This is quite unique."

Morgan State University may have won a Pyrrhic victory in its dispute with the University of Maryland University College over a graduate program to train doctoral candidates in community college administration. The school had wanted the Maryland Higher Education Commission to block a planned online community college administration program at UMUC on the grounds it would duplicate Morgan's own up-and-running program in the same specialty. This week the commissioners sided with Morgan, at least to the extent of barring UMUC from offering its course to students in Maryland, setting a worrisome precedent for how the state will handle a longstanding anti-segregation measure in the digital age. Since UMUC is mostly an online institution, and the vast majority of its students already live outside the state (many are military and government personnel stationed abroad)

Morgan State University has objected to the creation of a doctoral program for aspiring community college administrators at the University of Maryland, University College, raising questions about how the state will handle competition between traditional universities and their online peers. Morgan offers a similar degree and has told the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which would have to approve the program, that UMUC could lure students away, in violation of civil rights precedents set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

I proudly teach government and politics at University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and often discuss the notorious 1898 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case with my students. Plessy cemented the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow foundation by endorsing the racist doctrine of "separate but equal." In some ways, UMUC is similar to the East Louisiana Railroad car that Homer Plessy boarded on June 7, 1892. Just as railroads served to propel the U.S. toward progress in the 19th century, UMUC plays a key role in creating a future of global opportunities for thousands of adult students in Maryland and throughout the world, offering bachelor's and master's programs, a doctoral program and a multitude of certificate programs and numerous online offerings.

Bogus e-mail appearing to come from universities and colleges is making the rounds to "phish" for personal or sensitive information such as passwords, credit card account data and Social Security numbers. In a warning last week, Penn State warned its students, faculty, staff and alumni to beware of e-mail messages from addresses such as The Psu.edu Team, websupport@webmaster.com, and ALERT@psu.edu. One version of the message states that it's from the "webmail messaging center" and that the university is upgrading Penn State WebMail so recipients should "upgrade their user accounts."

The University System of Maryland has an ambitious plan to increase enrollment over the next decade. It anticipates about 22,700 more undergraduates and nearly 10,000 more graduate students by 2017 - a 23 percent and 25 percent increase, respectively, over current enrollments. That will challenge state officials to provide adequate funding and university officials to work harder to recruit and retain a future pool of students that is expected to be a lot more diverse and a lot less familiar with higher education.